Alrey Batol

LA2015 Musings

There's a lot of information out there. So much that it might literally (invisibly) surround you or fly past you and you wouldn't notice. I remember seeing a documentary on the Dark Web, it showed how it came out of a network platform called the TOR project (the onion ring), a highly successful encryption environment that would eventually set the ground work for online shopping and banking. I suppose before this, it would've been equivalent to a Wild West era in internet history and I guess also in the history of personal privacy. Much has changed but I lovingly recall (late 90's) an early social media platform called LiveJournal where you would post journal entries for everyone to see. It was amazing! but it didn't really quite kick off in Australia (petty relationship dramas and breakups). Still up these days but has somewhat been overshadowed. But when it came out it was a social volcano eruption. The appeal was coming from an in-your-face access to raw information. Nowadays Facebook limits this to your friends (all 429 of them..) and some better privacy options. But if you ask me, I still think it's a free-for-all.

Key word being 'free' and big business knows this. The only reason why personal information hasn't been commodified is that they would love nothing more than to just take it from you (another reason is that we let them). Free market research and special algorithms to sort the information, I wouldn't be surprised if there were regular silent auctions happening in the background with Facebook, Twitter, or Google selling to the highest bidder. Imagine if there was a new LiveJournal where a company could tap into what you do everyday, you're desires and your needs. You think, 'oh wait, that sounds familiar, haven't they already made one?'  - Alrey Batol

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